A year ago [2008] we launched A Passion for Excellence. Since then the economic climate in which we all operate has toughened, but that should in no way lessen our commitment to improving cultural and sporting services.

The right response is to see improving provision of culture and sport as an even higher priority – to work harder to offer greater value for money and higher quality services for local residents, and to build up existing provision with a view to the increasing contribution that culture and creativity will make to the local, regional and national economies that emerge over the next few years.

We are encouraged by the proportion of local authorities that have adopted improvement targets directly or indirectly dependent on the contribution made by culture and sport, and how national and local government are working together to provide free swimming – from April 2009 eighty two per cent of local authorities in England will be offering free swimming to people over 60, under 16, or both.

Good progress has been achieved since A Passion for Excellence was published in March 2008. Confidence is growing in the benefits of self-assessment, peer review and leadership training, and the networks and partnerships essential to improvement are growing and strengthening.

This Action Plan can help build on this progress, providing a reference point for the key initiatives, resources and contacts essential to further continuous improvement.

Editor's comments - [ The strategy A Passion for Excellence, launched in March 2008, is about supporting local government and their partners deliver better outcomes. It set out a framework for the culture and sport sectors to: improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of culture and sport in the delivery of economic, social and environmental outcomes in local communities, improve the performance of the culture and sport sector and to address under- performance,build capacity and leadership, simplify and coordinate the regional improvement infrastructure. One year on, this document sets out what progress has been made and outlines further work to be undertaken. ] Reference this?Cryer, J. (Year). This page title in italics. Retrieved date, from <this page's full URL>

In the text: Cryer (year)

Reference : DCMS. (2009). A Passion for excellence: One year on. London: TSO

The above reference is in the APA style: See why this is important in our [how to reference] us guide.